FLUG REVUE update: Week ending August 12, 2001

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UPDATE

Week ending August 19, 2001

+++ Helios climbs to record height ++ Raytheon Hawker Horizon flies +++ Continental flies +++ F-22 Raptor gets LRIP go-ahead +++ Shuttle mission nearly complete +++ News in brief +++

Helios climbs to record height
NASA-Nurflügler stellt neuen Rekord auf

A new world record altitude of 96,500 feet over the Pacific Ocean was reached by the solar-powered Helios Prototype flying wing at 4:08 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time (HST), Aug. 13, fulfilling the expectations of engineers from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center and AeroVironment, Inc., builders of the 247-ft. wing. This is the first time a non-rocket powered aircraft has maintained flight this far above the earth. Sustained operations at that altitude promise to enable capabilities ranging from environmental monitoring to radically improved communications on earth to simulating flight in the atmosphere of Mars. Daniel S. Goldin, NASA Administrator, who has been a strong supporter of solar powered flight, said, "This is a ground breaking accomplishment which will advance this technology to new heights."
The remotely-piloted wing took off from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility on the Hawaiian island of Kauai at 8:48 a.m. HST. Flying at about 25 miles an hour, the mission lasted nearly 17 hours, landing at 1:43 a.m. Aug. 14. The record flight sets the stage for follow-on missions that will use a regenerative fuel system now under development to enable Helios to remain aloft 24 hours a day for months at a time. The record altitude was achieved during daylight hours, relying on solar cells on the wing's surface to provide electrical power. Descent after dark was possible as the 14 electric motors were no longer needed to maintain altitude. During descent the propellers acted as generators, providing electrical power to control the aircraft.

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Raytheon Hawker Horizon flies
Erstflug der Hawker Horizon in Wichita

Raytheon Aircraft's largest airplane, the new super mid-size Hawker Horizon, flew its maiden flight on August 11. With Horizon Chief Test Pilot Tom Carr at the controls, the business jet flew a 2 ½-hour mission from Wichita's Beech Field that tested the aircraft's flying qualities, engine operation, low-speed handling and climb performance. Co-pilot was Hans Betz and flight test engineer was Andy Collier. The aircraft flew to 10,500 feet and operated at speeds up to 225 knots. "The aircraft was everything we expected and more," said Carr. "Performance and handling qualities were exactly as expected. Controls were very responsive and predictable. We're ready to go up again."
The Hawker Horizon, which is one-third larger than the company's mid-size Hawker 800XP, offers an outstanding combination of range, speed and cabin size. An NBAA IFR range of 3,100 nm at Mach .82 is guaranteed for the Horizon, promising the ability to cross the U.S. non-stop against almost any wind. A maximum range of 3,400 nm provides trans-Atlantic capability and additional performance flexibility. Four aircraft will participate in FAA certification tests, which are expected to be complete in 2003. Raytheon Aircraft expects to build 36 Horizons each year. The aircraft has a backlog of more than 150 orders, including options.

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Continental flies
Erstflug des Bombardier Continental

Bombardier Aerospace's all-new Continental business jet successfully completed its first flight on August 14. The milestone event occurred in accordance with the program schedule established at its official launch more than two years ago at the Paris Air Show. The aircraft is on schedule for type certification in the third quarter of 2002, followed by initial deliveries shortly thereafter. The first Bombardier Continental jet - factory serial number 20001 - took off from Bombardier Learjet facilities at Wichita's Mid-Continent Airport under near-perfect weather conditions at 6:57 a.m. and returned at 8:57a.m. During the course of its two-hour flight, it reached an altitude of 17,500 feet (5,334 m) and a speed of 210 knots (242 mph; 389 km/h). Jim Dwyer, manager of Learjet flight test programs and Continental Project Test Pilot flew the aircraft with test pilot Ed Grabman and reported that the flight was "very successful." "The aircraft performed extremely well throughout the entire flight, exhibiting both solid performance and mature systems reliability," observed Mr. Dwyer. "This was a very aggressive first flight plan and the aircraft exceeded our expectations. This is a mature aircraft and is configured to start flying for certification tests - not for system development."
Developed to meet the unique needs of the emerging super midsize market, the Bombardier Continental has enjoyed one of the strongest introductions in corporate aviation history. As of June, 2001, customers worldwide had placed firm orders for 115 aircraft, recognizing its value and versatility.

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F-22 Raptor gets LRIP go-ahead
Pentagon genehmigt Produktion der F-22

The Defense Acquisition Board has approved the F-22 air superiority fighter to enter low- rate initial production, officials announced Aug. 15. The decision means Lockheed-Martin will build 10 F-22s using fiscal 2001 funds and 13 in fiscal 2002. There are currently eight F-22s already flying. "The program has met all its exit criteria for entering into low-rate production and is performing to its design goals," said Pete Aldridge, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics.The acquisition board unanimously approved low-rate production, Aldridge said. Low-rate production will run through fiscal 2005, then shift into high-rate production. Aldridge said the program will provide air dominance through the next 20 years. The board's decision requires DoD and the Air Force to seek a lift in the F-22's current $37.6 billion budget cap. The production budget would rise to $45 billion. Research, development and testing of the aircraft cost about $18 billion, raising the total cost to about $63 billion. The acquisition board also cut the total number of F-22s to be produced from 331 to 295. The board reached this decision because of a difference in the cost estimates between the Air Force and the independent Cost Analysis Improvement Group. Low-rate production is set to rise to 30 aircraft in fiscal 2005. High-rate production calls for 90 aircraft per year beginning in fiscal 2006.

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Shuttle mission nearly complete
Raumstations-Besatzung gewechselt

The ten astronauts and cosmonauts aboard Discovery and the International Space Station focused on transfer activities late last we+ek, continuing to place equipment, discarded items and belongings of the Expedition Two crew aboard the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Leonardo for return to Earth. Expedition Two Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers Jim Voss and Susan Helms continued handover briefings with the Expedition Three crew. The new station commander, Frank Culbertson, and Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Tyurin and Vladimir Dezhurov have taken up residence aboard the station. The Expedition Two crewmembers, who spent more than five months on the station, will return home aboard Discovery this week.
After a one-day delay because of weather, Space Shuttle Discovery blasted off on August 10, carrying a crew of four and three new residents to the International Space Station. Aboard Discovery were Commander Scott Horowitz, Pilot Rick Sturckow and Mission Specialists Pat Forrester and Dan Barry along with Expedition Three Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin. They will replace the Expedition Two crew, Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers Jim Voss and Susan Helms, who were wrapping up their 155th day in space at the time of Discovery’s launch.

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NEWS IN BRIEF / KURZMELDUNGEN

Flying the venerable Sikorsky S-61N, civil operator British International transported the three millionth passenger between Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. British International and its predecessor companies have been flying S-61Ns between Cornwall on the British mainland and the Isles of Scilly since May 1, 1964, making it the world's longest established helicopter passenger service. A celebration was held at the conclusion of the milestone flight at the company's heliport in Penzance, Cornwall that included representatives from British International, Sikorsky, elected local officials, and invited guests. British International presented an engraved picture of one of the S61s to Susan Leggett, the three millionth passenger. Mrs. Leggett and her husband Colin, of Leicestershire, are regular visitors to the Isles of Scilly, a cluster of islands about 20 miles off Britain's southwest coast.
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The Antonov An-70 development programme will not be abandoned despite setbacks, such as, for instance, the aircrash of the An-70 near Omsk in January of this year, Director-General of the Moscow machine- building production association Yuri Yeliseyev said at the international aerospace show in Zhukovsky. According to Yeliseyev, for the successful implementation of the An-70 programme it is necessary to build the second and third experimental planes as soon as possible. This requires both greater attention on the part of the state authorities and the engagement of a large number of enterprises. In addition, the leaders of the aircraft-manufacturing industry must also have their say, the more so since relatively small resources are needed to fulfill such a major programme.
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The Irkutsk Aviation Production Company has started to assembly seven Be-200 ChS amphibious aircraft to order of the Russian ministry for civil defense and emergencies. This year the federal government has assigned almost 96 million rubles for the construction of the unique planes. The first aircraft will be handed over to the ministry in the second quarter of 2002. The plane is meant for Russia's first sea rescue center in Gelendzhik. The ministry intends to use the Be-200 ChS for bringing rescuers to accident sites, evacuating people from ships in distress and extinguishing large forest fires. The model Be-200 ChS has passed flight and certification tests. It made 337 flights within four years, including more than 100 take-offs from water. The overall duration of the test flights is 202 hours
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Schweizer Aircraft Corp. announced another milestone for the 300CB helicopters. The Model 300CB (269C-1) fleet recently reached the one hundred and eighty thousand flight hour mark with an outstanding safety record. Besides having clearly established itself as a superior aircraft for flight training, the 300CB has compiled a safety record worldwide that is without precedent. In 180,000 flight hours, there have been only ten accidents and no fatality or serious injury accidents. The Model 300CB is used primarily for pilot training, an activity that traditionally generates higher accident rates. To put the 300CB’s impressive safety record into perspective, during the 5-year period between 1996 and 2000 and using NTSB yearly statistics for all reciprocating engine helicopters, accident rates varied from a minimum of 13.87 to a maximum of 25 per 100,000 flight hours (with an average of 20.54 accidents per 100,000 flight hours). During these same years, fatal accidents varied from a low of 2.01 to a high of 3.26 for each 100,000 flight hours (with an average of 2.44 fatals per 100,000 flight hour). In comparison, the actual accident rate for the 300CB has been 5.62 accidents per 100,000 flight hours, and 0.0 fatalities per 100,000 flight hours.
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Saab Bofors Dynamics has signed a contract with Thales Netherland B.V. for the RBS 15 missile AD system to be mounted on Polish naval vessels. The contract is valued at circa 10 million EUROs. Thales were appointed Prime Contractor, and during the summer they signed a contract with Naval Shipyard Gydinia for the upgrading of the three ORKAN class vessels in the Polish Navy. Among other things, the upgrading programme comprises the Thales’ “TACTICOS” Combat Control System, Ericsson Microwave Systems’ Giraffe 3D radar and RBS 15. The contract enters in to force when a separate counter-trade agreement has been signed with the Polish authorities.
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Boeing and Ilyushin Aviation Complex announced today the opening of a training center for Russian aerospace engineers. The center, equipped with the most advanced CATIA work stations available, will provide training for up to 50 Russian engineers a month. The center will be located at Ilyushin facility in Moscow North-West, and will train specialists for the Boeing Design Center in Moscow. Boeing and IBM instructors will provide classes in CATIA design, structural computation systems and Boeing standards to support Boeing's commercial airplane activities. The students will study the English language as well.
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Boeing has received a $33.6 million U.S. Defense Department contract to produce 131 additional Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing System, or JHMCS, continuing the program's progress through low-rate initial production. Greece's Hellenic Air Force will receive 55 of the systems for its F-16s. The U.S. Navy will get 39 for its F/A-18E/F Super Hornets while the U.S. Air Force will get 28 for its F-16s and nine for F-15s. Deliveries begin in mid-2002 and are to be completed about a year later. The contract also includes a spare F-15 system, and options for Greece to order up to 10 additional systems and the Royal Australian Air Force to order six.
+++
Soaring gracefully down to Earth from a balloon floating 101,000 feet high above Oregon, a NASA prototype of an airplane that someday may fly over Mars successfully completed a high-altitude flight test. Conducted at Oregon's Tillamook airport by the Kitty Hawk 3 project at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, the test was designed to validate the aerodynamic performance of the prototype. Nicknamed "Orville" after one of the famed Wright brothers who first flew on Dec. 17, 1903, the NASA 731 glider was dropped from a helium-filled balloon that towed it up to an altitude of 101,000 feet - the highest ever for such a test – before releasing it. Engineers and scientists hailed the test as a great success. "It was a great flight and everything went really well. It appears that we realized all of our test objectives," exclaimed a jubilant Andy Gonzales, an Ames aerospace engineer who served as the flight test director. Low-altitude tests of NASA 729, another prototype called "Wilbur," were conducted last month at Ames.
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Delta Air Lines, Air France, Alitalia and CSA Czech Airlines filed a joint application for antitrust immunity with the U.S. Department of Transportation that will allow the four carriers to expand their current marketing agreements and develop a coordinated approach to sales and marketing programs. When approved by the DOT, the carriers will be able to cooperate in the operation of their transatlantic route systems on a broad network-to-network basis to improve the quality and competitiveness of the services they offer to customers, while re taining their separate corporate and national identities. Delta, Air France and CSA Czech today offer codeshare on a number of transatlantic flights operated between the U.S., France and the Czech Republic. In addition, Delta links its extensive network of cities in the Americas with many destinations served by Air France and CSA Czech. Delta and Alitalia have announced plans to offer codesharing later this year on U.S.-Italy flights and additional services by Alitalia to destinations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. With antitrust immunity, the four carriers will expand their existing codeshare operations through a coordinated approach to schedules and routes and network planning. The proposed arrangement will allow the carriers to generate efficiencies and provide improved services to customers through coordinated marketing and sales programs, service standards and procedures, advertising and media programs, and cargo programs and operations.
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Snecma Moteurs, NPO Saturn and CIAM have signed a Memorandum of Understanding in the frame of the SM 146 jet engine programme. This engine is offered by Snecma Moteurs in cooperation with NPO Saturn for the Russian Regional Jet (RRJ) project presented by Sukhoi, Ilyushin and Boeing. On the basis of the agreement, Snecma Moteurs, NPO Saturn and CIAM will determine the domains in which CIAM will provide its best experience and expertise, during the development of the engine as well as for the engine certification tests.
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Embraer has just achieved another ERJ 170 program milestone. Today, the wings of the aircraft were fitted to the full fuselage. This event marks the conclusion of another step in the final assembly of the ERJ 170 prototype, which has been progressing much better than originally scheduled. While the different fuselage sections were mated during the last half of July, the final touches were given in fitting-out the wings with required systems installations. The wings were assembled by Embraer with Kawasaki Heavy Industries, which provided leading and trailing structures, spars and surfaces; Sonaca supplied slats and Embraer skins and ribs. Once these two major assemblies were completed and ready, the following step was to mate the wings with the fuselage.
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A series of three hot-fire tests on tandem Boeing Rocketdyne XRS-2200 aerospike engines has been completed at NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center, confirming the performance of electromechanical actuators (EMAs) that were used in propellant valving for the engines. EMAs are seen as a technology of choice in new rocket engines that could be developed under the Space Launch Initiative (SLI). With a total of 120 seconds of hot-fire performance, the dual-engine test series has been declared a success, with test objectives met, along with schedule and cost goals. "We were able to acquire all of the data that we wanted, which NASA other SLI contractors can use for SLI applications. The team did an outstanding job with limited resources and a short timeline," said Steve Bouley, Division Director, Propulsion Development at the Rocketdyne Propulsion & Power unit of The Boeing Company. "Data from the final test completed on August 6 is being thoroughly reviewed," said Aerospike Program Manager Mike McKeon. "But we've already had a good look at how the EMAs perform under hot-fire conditions, and the results confirmed our expectations."
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Hawker Pacific Aerospace announced that it has signed agreements with its majority shareholder, Lufthansa Technik AG, under which both parties have agreed to cooperate and support each other in providing aircraft component services to their combined customer base, and to provide each other access to their respective capabilities and capacities. The agreements also provide for the parties to continue developing a joint sales and marketing approach, and to further explore purchasing synergies. Lufthansa Technik AG ("LHT"), which operates a repair facility in Hamburg, and Hawker Pacific Aerospace (the "Company") joined in the Cooperation Agreement and General Supporting Contract in order to offer their customers a full range of landing gear support services with the highest quality profile, improved cost efficiencies and the shortest turn-around times possible. These benefits are anticipated based on the implementation of a Centers of Excellence strategy by which certain aircraft types would be assigned to either the London or Hamburg repair facilities. The Cooperation Agreement provides that, over time, the Company's London facility will provide landing gear overhaul services for substantially all Boeing aircraft serviced by either the Company or LHT. In addition, the Company expects that the London facility will provide services for wide-body Airbus aircraft in the future. The Cooperation Agreement does not specify the amount of work that will be done at the Company's London facility or the amounts to be charged, but if current service contracts of LHT and the Company were to remain in effect over the next three years, charges remained as currently provided in those service contracts and if the number of covered aircraft and current customer maintenance schedules and requirements remained in effect through this period, the Company's London operation would see additional activity during the next three years of up to approximately $22 million in additional revenue. This amount may increase or decrease materially based on a number of factors including, among others, new service contracts awarded to either LHT or the Company, changes in existing service contracts, aircraft retirements or sales, changes in customer schedules or requirements, and operational planning by either party.
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Teh Deutsche Zeppelin Reederei, the 100 per cent subsidiary of the Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH, has been granted teh official certification as Commercial Operator by teh Luftfahrt-Bundesamt. This certification enables DZR to undertake flight with the first serial Zeppelin NT-07, named „Bodensee“ Operations started on 15 August.
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